OK, here the reply from my friend. He said that if anyone has any questions to feel free to contact him if you have any questions.
I'm not a member of this forum, but my old friend Fred forwarded this question to me, probably because he knows that it fit me.
I went back to school for my MM in Jazz Studies (guitar) at UNT in 2001. I was 40. The previous year, I taught 997 guitar lessons out of my house (I kept track), and decided that (a) there had to be a better way to teach (wholesale, not retail, I thought to myself), and (b) I really wanted to become a better player too, not just teach others forever. I had been playing since I was a kid, but I had never thought of myself as 'serious' or 'good'. I wanted to play with better players. I knew that I had no illusions at my age about becoming a 'name' player, so that was not a motivator. But I also knew that since I had avoided the whole dream of being a serious player for many years, working in music-related jobs (or sometimes not working, or not in music-related work), that it was time to face it or forget it.
The good news for me:
I was a better player than I thought I was.
Being older meant I was focused on the music, not partying or girls.
Professors enjoyed having an older student setting an example of getting up, going to classes, shedding, etc.
I was neither the only 40+ student nor the oldest.
Doing a graduate degree is easier than working a day job. It requires about the same amount of time.
The UNT environment - 400 or 500 jazz studies majors - meant community (or fish bowl, depending on how you see it), peer pressure, and lots of people who mostly loved music the same way I do. I haven't seen that before or since.
The bad news for me (and maybe for you):
Poverty. Get used to it. After awhile, that occasional $100-200 social gig seems like a gift from above. I spent all the $10K I had saved, plus $10K my parents gave me as a gift. Plus I now have some student loans to pay off. Being older meant I wasn't going to live like a 21-year old student. I had a nice apartment and no roommates. It cost me.
There was and will always be someone younger who could play something I couldn't. Sometimes 'mature' felt like just 'old'. And sometimes I really wondered if I was doing the right thing with my life. That feeling was temporary, always.
The degree itself didn't get me a gig. There will still be people making more money playing country or rock music. And colleges would rather hire trumpet or saxophone teachers, but that's their problem, not mine.
Whatever problems I had going in, I still mostly had coming out: I'm still not great at networking or hustling work.
It made my long-term relationship a little weird at times (my girlfriend remained, since she had a good job and a house).
I got my MM in May '04. Then the real fear set in: what if I do nothing with this degree, and end up working at some crappy job with nothing to show for it but student loans? Fortunately, my phone rang about three weeks after graduation, and I was offered a sabbatical replacement teaching post at a college in Canada. Since I was up for the first adventure, why not be up for the next one? The sabbatical replacement turned into another one-year renewal, and I'm likely to get a tenure-track offer within a few months.
I got hired for my playing first, but what nailed the job (and is causing the re-hire) is the other things: I can (and do) teach jazz composition, music technology (Finale and simple MIDI), arranging, and can coach student ensembles. I didn't know this stuff, nor want to, when I began grad school. But I love it. Teaching is not just a fall-back position for me - it's part of what I am now. Jazz musicians should learn that 99.9% of the world will not care about what they play, so teaching is a way to spread the disease of jazz and combat the forces of stupidity.
It was worth the three years of my time, and the money I spent. I have absolutely no regrets and wished that I had done it sooner. My relationship survived, and we got married five months ago. It's an international marriage, and we buy a lot of plane tickets, but we have valid reasons that keep us living in different places right now. It's temporary. Meanwhile, she finds me easier to deal with, because I did the thing that I had to do.
Kevin Brunkhorst
Asst Professor, Music Dept
St Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
www.kevinbrunkhorst.com
Check out her sig line.
